We're a commercial electrical contractor in the South Florida market.

We cover pretty much from Fort Pierce to Homestead with Palm Beach County being our principal focus.

We do strictly commercial work, no residential, and have a focus on automotive dealership facilities.

And of recent days, we're doing a tremendous amount of EV charging infrastructure projects.

That's probably 35% of our business at the moment.

It's a difficult industry, it's challenging.

Codes and standards change regularly.

Financial requirements change regularly.

We are in a very litigious area in South Florida.

The process of getting paid can be difficult at times.

Rewards are, it's accomplishing, it's a very accomplishing trade.

You see it, you see what you do, you light up things and bring power to things throughout a project.

Apprentices by the, in the beginning stage for a contractor, they're kind of a liability because they're the most dangerous on a job.

They don't have the knowledge to avoid accidents and injuries.

They're the least productive until they start to learn.

But as that process goes, it becomes a payback.

So we build a crop of capable qualified journeyman electricians to enter a trade that is forever.

People are retiring or going on to, we quite often have people move into management positions or administrative positions.

So we're in constant need of field staff and that's the best way to create those positions.

I think getting into the apprenticeship program for any trade is probably a great option for a lot of people if you're not sure what you're doing.

But I think it's a good opportunity for many.

The reason I chose the apprenticeship program was getting paid pretty much to learn.

So you're getting paid while you're in the field.

Went to school a couple nights a week, but it made me feel like I was doing something where there'd be a little more future.

Afterwards it helps you learn along the way, helps you a lot of the book knowledge while you're out in the field, learning the field side of it at the same time.

We've had a great success of recruiting out of a a PSAB program at Palm Beach State College, which is like an entry to the electrical industry that they spend a year in this class.

And through that process have learned at least an entry level piece of reading blueprints, the code, the whole industry.

And they've committed the time to where we believe they're interested in staying in the trade.

I recruited Javier through the Palm Beach State College program.

We sent him to CareerSource for a sponsorship and an initial program, an initial apprenticeship program, which Career source approved him for.

We ran him through an initial 90 days of training.

After completing that training, they, we then sponsored him into the IEC Independent Electrical Contractors apprenticeship program.

He just completed his first year and going on to his second year of apprenticeship now.

So we're really happy with the, with Javier and the whole process.

Yeah, the guys that I've came across working with definitely without a a hesitation, helped me out.

Any questions I had for them were quick to not only explain to me, but show me hands-on, learning as we work.

Definitely helped me en encouraged me to really stay focused on what I'm doing here.

He's really good worker, hard worker, very smart, seems to be very motivated.

You can tell he kinda wants to do maybe a little more so, which is always good to see.

Definitely think he'll be a big part of the company soon.

We don't just send him to an apprenticeship school and say, figure it out and come back and be an electrician.

We sort of assist them in the process.

If we, they need additional tutoring, they need support, we try to help them and commend them when they make great accomplishments, pull 'em aside when they're not doing so well, and find a way to help them, to succeed in the process.

Sort of builds a bond between us that it retention's really good with us.

So, and that's a difficult thing in this trade.

So apprenticeship has been my greatest success story in accomplishing that.

I think that it helps that the guys that are now going through the apprenticeship program, see people like myself that have been here for a while, did the same thing but worked our way up into a management type position.

I think it kind of gives them the, the outlook that there's more is possible.

And they see at a company like this where people are being brought up from within and aren't, always being hired from the outside.

The old adage of a paycheck was the, an employer's employer with a paycheck that was, would rule the world.

That was, that's all it took to get employees.

It's, they're not interested in pay.

It's not about the paychecks now.

It's about being a part of something in a meaningful organization where they're recognized for their accomplishments.

A lot of contractors don't wanna spend the money to be involved in apprenticeship.

It's not inexpensive, especially if you go to additional steps to keep them engaged and keep them successful in the process but it pays off.

62% of our overall employees have been here 10 years or longer.

That's unheard of in this industry.

By making those steps, you can really accomplish something.